help please anyone got any good tips for giving up feeding a 17 month old DS

[beckyeliza72]

hi all I am thinking about giving up breast feeding my ds of 17 months, I am a single parent so its no good getting someone else to put him to bed to break the routine... I am currently feeding him around 3 times a day and he still enjoys feeding. I did a wrong one by feeding him to sleep, so its not so much the stopping feeding its more the consoling bit that's worrying me. He is a good sleeper and sleeps through the night and also for around 2 hours in the day, but I am really worried about getting just him off to sleep, I tried packing in the lunchtime feed (although not wholeheartedly) and I have tried just putting him in the cot and doing the cc thing, but he just cries himself into a blithering mess... maybe I am too soft, but its hard when its only you and you;ve had a whole day of it or been up since 6!! As u can probably appreciate....! So I would really, really appreciate any help/advice from anyone! I am want to try as ASAP now i have made my mind up, also I can have a night out!!! So please help me i need a bit of a life back lol! many thanks in advance
B

You're not too soft, we don't all have to see the cc method as the be all and end all.
I disagree with leaving children to scream, esp as they have spent so long being nurtured and fed why do we expect them to just suddenly accept not being fed or cuddled to sleep?

I had same situation as you, made halfhearted attempts to give up from about 12mths finally doing it when dd just turned two! I had been feeding her to sleep and did a lot of co-sleeping.
During the halfhearted months i just tried to wear tops which were harder for her to get through, and avoided cuddles etc during the day. Then at 15mths she hated her cot so much i put her on a matress on the floor in her own room and we talked a lot about how she was a special grown up girl etc and big girls don't need bf anymore. I used to lay with her and read stories when she was going to sleep. When she started digging around for a feed i'd laugh and say you don't need that you're a big girl now. Sometimes she'd laugh and forget about it, othertimes she'd have a small feed. This went on for weeks and weeks and i was happy as i could see things slowing down and new eventually things would come to an end. I guess my milk supply was becoming less and less and she was eventually weaned as i had no milk left!
The next step was to get her to go to sleep without needing me there. This i did by gradually moving away from her until i was sitting in the doorway of her room and crept off once she was asleep. Once i felt she was capable of doing it, i'd actually leave to go downstairs. She'd get up and i'd say if you don't stay in bed i'll shut the door, which i did on a handful of occasions just for a couple of mins until she learnt eventually not to get out of her bed.
Sorry for the long post! hth it was long drawn out process but i'd rather do this anyday than cc method.

I wanted to feed mine as long as possible but they all gave up just under a year! They do have good appetites though and eat well! I know its a comfort thing so maybe finding a replacement comforter? A nice teddy or something and introduce it at bed time maybe feed until almost asleep then give teddy as you put them to bed! It might work. Who knows these children are a law unto themselves and we fool ourselves if we think we have the upper hand!!!!!